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A Review Of Feminist Theory

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A Review of “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center”
Jessica Arizaga
DePaul University

A Review of “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center” bell hooks’ second book, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, was published in 1984. It is one of her more widely known works, pushing her into the forefront as a leading voice between second and third-wave feminism. Third-wave feminism theory is inclusive of elements of anti-racism, lesbian theory, and women-of-color consciousness, brought upon as a criticism of the second-wave; which highlighted upper-middle class white women’s issues and projected them onto the whole mass without consideration of minority experiences. hooks’ novel is reflective of this and incorporates these subjects paying specific attention to the ethnic minority experience of feminism. She does this in order to raise awareness of groups marginalized within feminism, arguing that they should in fact be at the center of the movement. bell hooks was the pen name taken by Gloria Jean Watkins. Her work focuses on the intersection of gender, race, and class- emphasizing the impossibility of eradicating one without dismantling the others. She is a self-proclaimed black feminist critic of “white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy.” Her work includes dozens of well-known novels and a plethora of scholarly articles. Her immediate family life and experiences growing up in Kentucky shaped her life perspective from which she writes. She encountered and

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